When we moved to a new site in Dec 92 and had a chance to re-equip our manufacturing facilities, we threw away all our old Wellers and replaced them all with Metcal SP200 as our standard general purpose bench tool. Weller are still good irons, but the speed of tip-change, temperature response and self-calibrating nature of Metcal SmartHeat technology are hard to beat - only the new system from jbc soldering solutions comes close. We also use the 002E system for special SMT rework operations with relevant shaped tips for the regular handpiece, plus it will also drive their "Talon" tweezer style handpiece which is particularly good for SOJ packs. We have used no-clean solder wire for many years and don't have any problems - the tight temperature control of the iron tip and low-fuming nature of the no-clean wire makes for safer soldering too. An occasional use of a tip tinner product does, however, seem to help which contradicts some technical advice I have seen elsewhere. Nigel Burtt Production Engineering Manager D - European HQ Email: [log in to unmask] Tel: 01793 842132 Fax: 01793 842101 ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################ ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################